The Hindu : Front Page : Shooting case: 10 policemen held guilty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 17, 2007
ePaper

Front Page

Front Page

Shooting case: 10 policemen held guilty

Staff Reporter

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

The dismissed police officer, S.S. Rathi, being produced at the Patiala House Court in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Tuesday held the dismissed Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police Satyavir Singh Rathi guilty along with nine other policemen, who were involved in the infamous Connaught Place shooting case in which two businessmen were killed and another was injured 10 years ago.

Holding them guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder, Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Kumar said the quantum of sentence would be pronounced on October 24. Following the order, all the accused were taken into custody.

Apart from ACP Rathi, the others convicted were Inspector Anil Kumar, Sub-Inspector Ashok Rana, head constables Shiv Kumar, Tejpal Singh and Mahavir Singh and constables Sumer Singh, Subhash Chand, Sunil Kumar and Kothari Ram.

While the then Delhi Police Commissioner, Nikhil Kumar, had said that the incident was a “bona fide case of mistaken identity,” the court categorically said the circumstances of the case proved beyond doubt that the accused had conspired to kill alleged gangster Mohammad Yaseen even if he was unarmed.

“Therefore, they were ready with a weapon and with two empty cartridges to plant the same so as to show that first the occupant of the car had fired,” the court said.

On March 31, 1997, a team of the Inter-State Cell of the Crime Branch of the Delhi police, led by ACP Rathi, was following a car in which Yaseen was supposed to be moving towards Delhi.

The police team then cornered the car near the Statesman House in Connaught Place and rained bullets on it killing two persons in the car. They immediately claimed that they had killed a gangster in an encounter only to realise that they had killed two innocent businessmen Pradeep Goel and Jagjit Singh. A third person, Tarun Preet Singh, son of a business associate of the two victims, was injured in the incident.

The police claimed the occupants of the car had opened fire and that they had retaliated in “self-defence.” They also said that a pistol and nearly half-a-dozen cartridges were recovered from the car.

The forensic examination of the said pistol also “confirmed” that it was the same firearm used against the policemen and a report in this regard was also lodged at Connaught Place police station by one of the accused Inspector Anil.

However, after the Central Bureau of Investigation took up the investigation, the pistol was again forensically examined and it was found that it had not been used for several months.

In view of the circumstances, the court has summoned forensic expert Roop Singh under Section 344 (procedure for summary trial for giving false evidence) of the Criminal Procedure Code and directed him to file his reply on October 22.

The court has convicted all the accused under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 193 (punishment for fabricating false evidence), read with 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The court has also found Rathi and Inspector Anil Kumar guilty under Section 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of the IPC.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page